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PC Gamer UK February issue: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai

Tom Senior
Jan 18, 2012

Page 1 of 10

We rarely get the chance to feature such a magnificent beard on our cover. Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai has given us that chance. In our six page feature, we take an in-depth look at the fascinating standalone expansion for Shogun 2. It's set during the twilight years of the Shogunate at a time when incoming imperial technology threatens the stability of Japan's ruling classes, and it's looking rather exciting. To celebrate, we're giving every reader
Empire: Total War's Warpath Campaign
free in this issue!

Also, THE TOP 100 IS HERE. Yes, the sexiest list of the year has arrived, in which we deliver our infallible and entirely correct list of the 100 best PC games in the world right now. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll want to write a strongly worded letter of disagreement. You can argue the case for your favourite games in the top 100 discussion happening on our
forums
right now.

In our previews section this month, Tom Francis takes to the lanes in Dota 2, Chris Thursten takes to the planes in X-Plane 10, then takes the reins in Warlock: Master of the Arcane. Tom takes the blame in Faster Than Light and Chris uses hammers to maim in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, winning the previews section by a score of 3 -2. Elsewhere, Will Porter takes a look at Mass Effect 3 and Henry Winchester checks out Sniper Elite V2.

In Extra Life we recount some of the funniest and strangest things that have happened to us in games recently. Rich McCormick becomes an accidental cannibal in Skyrim, Henry is way ahead of the criminals in LA Noire, Tom F dons a jetpack in Spelunky and Chris bribes all the space pirates he can throw money at in Sins of a Solar Empire.

Then there's our top ten free downloads section, in which we gather together some great Shogun 2 mods and go slightly insane playing Worry of Newport. Tom Senior returns to Terraria to explore the huge 1.1 patch in Update, and Duncan Geere discovers how Bioshock was made in a four page feature we decided to call "The Making of Bioshock."

There's tons more inside, like Adam's hardware report on a way to use SSDs to speed up your system, our round-up of the best heatsinks for your CPU and our special report on this year's most promising racing sims. If you
subscribe
you'll get each issue, cheaper, earlier, and clad in our cover-line free cover (as seen above). You can also buy it
online
, through
Zinio
, or Apple Newsstand. Enjoy the issue!

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